Alice drank it for the
first time in her life, and her spirits grew as light as the foam
upon her glass. Brother and sister were quietly confidential as
midnight drew near.
'Shall you bring her to London?' Alice inquired, without previous
mention of Adela.
'For a week, I think. We shall go to an hotel, of course. She's
never seen London since she was a child.'
'She won't come to Highbury?'
'No. I shall avoid that somehow. You'll have to come and see us at
the hotel. We'll go to the theatre together one night.'
'What about 'Arry?'
'I don't know. I shall think about it.'
Digesting much at his ease, Richard naturally became dreamful.
'I may have to take a house for a time now and then,' he said.
'In London?'
He nodded.
'I mustn't forget you, you see, Princess. Of course you'll come here
sometimes, but that's not much good. In London I dare say I can get
you to know some of the right kind of people. I want Adela to be
thick with the Westlakes; then your chance'll come. See, old woman?'
Alice, too, dreamed.
'I wonder you don't want me to marry a Socialist working man,' she
said presently, as if twitting him playfully.
'You don't understand. One of the things we aim at is to remove the
distinction between classes. I want you to marry one of those they
call gentlemen.
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